The good old devil is given his due

In Shakespeare’s Netflix-worthy c. 1597 historical drama, Henry IV, Part 1, the playwright has the line, ‘Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs: he will give the devil his due,’ spoken by Prince Hal, the future king Henry V. By mentioning that it is a proverb, Shakespeare acknowledges his borrowing, probably from the 1589 anti-Anglican Church tract, ‘Pappe With an Hatchet’, written anonymously by writer and parliamentarian John Lyly, ‘Give them their due though they were devils.’ The phrase itself – give the devil his due – of course, means to acknowledge positive features in a person otherwise deemed undeserving.

Like Lyly, another parliamentarian of our time and place recently gave an old devil from the adversarial camp his due. Nitin Gadkari, Union minister of road transport and highways, publicly stated last Tuesday that the country is indebted (‘reeni hai’) to Manmohan Singh for liberalisation, which gave India a new direction (‘nayee disha’). This is top praise, made all the more gracious at a time when sniping at opponents past and present is de rigueur, even cheered on. Perhaps Gadkari giving the Congress ‘devil’ due credit can be emulated by others – folks with warts and all.